Kazim Vasiliauskas snatches pole for race two

Kazim Vasiliauskas claimed a dramatic pole position for tomorrow's second Formula Two race at Brands Hatch, the Lithuanian setting a time of 1:16.061s to beat Philipp Eng and the impressive Tom Gladdis to the front spot.

Kazim Vasiliauskas celebrates after clinching his first pole position of 2010 Credit: FIA F2

Eng had set the early pace in what turned out to be a disjointed second qualifying session at Brands Hatch, with a late red flag period disrupting several drivers' hot laps. With just three boosts available over the 30 minutes, that meant many were unable to improve when the session restarted.

Kazim Vasiliauskas took full advantage of the confusion to storm to the top of the timesheets with little over two minutes of the session remaining. Eng went on to complete his personal best lap to move back up the order and into second, just over seven hundredths of a second slower than Kazim's benchmark.

Whilst Kazim and Eng will share the front row for tomorrow's race, one of the more staggering displays came from Tom Gladdis in third. The Briton had been on to set a 1:15.8s lap time and clinch his first ever F2 pole when the red flags came out following a heavy shunt by Parthiva Sureshwaren at Westfield.

Undeterred, Gladdis returned to the circuit following the restart in what was seemingly a tough task to improve his times. The Briton did exactly that however, producing a non-boost qualifying lap that was good enough for third on the grid.

Jolyon Palmer briefly held fourth, but the championship leader was jumped by Sergey Afanasiev in the final minute. Will Bratt continued his good form to move into sixth, just 0.034s behind Palmer.

Dean Stoneman meanwhile was one of the main casualties of the red flag period, which coincided with the exact lap he had decided to use all three boosts. Stoneman elected not to go out again, instead saving his tyres for tomorrow's race, and he slipped down the order to seventh as a result.

Stoneman will share the fourth row with Italy's Nicola De Marco, while a stellar last gasp effort from Armaan Ebrahim - which saw the Indian pilot set the fastest time of anyone in sector three - promoted him into ninth as the session drew to a close. Mihai Marinescu rounds out what has been one of the closest top tens this season - the Romanian finishing just over half a second off Vasiliauskas' ultimate benchmark.

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